In the past various combined woodworking machines have been proposed for dividing and shaping wood. One such representative patent is U.S. Pat. No. 136,182 issued Feb. 25, 1873 to Rittenhouse. This machine includes two arbors each of which is provided with cooperative shapers, and one of the two arbors being provided with a pair of saws whereby stock material can be divided and shaped into plaster laths. No means are disclosed for supporting the wood and/or feeding the wood and therefore it would be extremely difficult with this form of machine to properly cut the wood. Furthermore, there are obvious disadvantages in utilizing a saw on only a single arbor to cut through the entire width of the stock material. Thus, a single saw will normally make a kerf of twice the width of a pair of cooperating saws. Additionally, a single saw will not cut the wood with the same precision as a pair of cooperating saws mounted on opposed arbors.
Another representative prior art patent is U.S. Pat. No. 987,012 issued Mar. 14, 1911 to Perkins. This patent shows feed rollers for feeding stock material into a cutting zone, upper and lower planers or cutters, and a pair of offset arbors disposed to either side of the cutting zone, each arbor having mounted thereon a single circular saw and shapers to either side of the saw. This permits the machine to divide a plank of wood into two planks having generally the same width, each plank having its edges shaped as to a tongue and groove construction of something similar thereto. Perkins does not disclose the utilization of a plurality of saws mounted on each arbor, nor would it be practical to provide such a construction since downstream of the cutting zone he provides a spreading device to spread the wood after it has been cut and it would not be practical to utilize a plurality of spreaders for a plurality of saws.
Today there are no commercially available machines which are capable of making multiple saw cuts through stock material and simultaneously shaping the edges of the cut material.